Crypt flower vase and mounting therefor

ABSTRACT

TO DISPLAY SEPARATE, INDIVIDUAL FLORAL BOUQUETS ON THE CRYPTS OF A MULTI-CRYPT MAUSOLEUM, THE EXPOSED FRONT WALL OF EACH CRYPT IS PERMANENTLY PROVIDED WITH AN INCONSPICUOUS SMALL TAB UPSTANDING IN CLOSELY SPACED RELATION TO THE WALL SURFACE TO SERVE AS A HOOK FOR REMOVABLY HANGING A SPECIALLY DESIGNED VASE ELEMENT HAVING A FLAT REAR WALL SLOTTED FOR RECEPTION OF THE TAB.

B. D. DALY ETAL 3,553,888

CRYPT FLOWER VASE AND MOUNTING THEREFOR Jan. 12, 1971 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Aug. 27. 1968 INVENTORS BRUCE DAVL'D DAJIY LOUISE A. DALY ATTORNEY Jan. 12, .1911 D. mm mm. 3,553,888

CRYPT FLOWER VASE AND MOUNTING THEREFOR Filed Aug. v '27. 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 l/l/jr/l/ll/l/l/f/l/l/ll/ INVENTORS L M D I V A D E C U R B LOUISE A. DALY ATTORNEY United States Patent 0 3,553,888 CRYPT FLOWER VASE AND MOUNTING THEREFOR Bruce David Daly and Louise A. Daly, both of 17021 10th St. NW., Seattle, Wash. 98177 Filed Aug. 27, 1968, Ser. No. 755,758 Int. Cl. A47g 7/06 US. Cl. 47--4l.1 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention relates to the display of floral tributes at the individual crypts of a multi-crypt mausoleum, and more particularly it aims to provide a novel combination of inconspicuous hook-like brackets, one permanently mounted on the exposed front wall of each crypt, and vase-like receptacles for bouquets or the like specially designed for ready application to and removal from the brackets.

The invention is of special utility in connection with mausoleums providing burial spaces in a plurality of individual crypts arranged in horizontal tiers and vertical rows as chambers or compartments behind a wall that fronts in a visitors space in. the mausoleum. The front wall area of each crypt is generally formed of marble or equivalent natural or artificial stone, suitably inscribed with identification of the interred person. The application of a floral offering to any particular, individual crypt presents a real problem in such an installation which is not encountered in. the case of ordinary cemetary lots with their individual graves and headstones. It has been the practice in some mausoleums to aflix to each crypt front wall a shelf on which a vase of flowers can be stood, or to provide the wall with a ring for insertion of a vase, but these and other attempts at solving the problem have been unsatisfactory for a number of reasons.

The principal object of the present invention is to eliminate the objections to and disadvantages of the prior art devices by providing eachcrypt with a specially designed vase-like receptacle which, when in place will be neat and attractive and present the appearance of a permanent and appropriate fixture of the crypt and which nevertheless can be readily removed when not required to display a bouquet or the like and which, when removed, will leave the crypt wall unmarred and unencumbered with any unsightly appendage, and without creating the impression that something is missing or has been removed.

To this end the invention provides a small bracket that is permanently mounted on each crypt front wall and is extremely inconspicuous and of such design as to present the appearance, if noticed at all, of part of the normal decoration of the wall surface. Cooperating with this small bracket is a specially designed pocketed or vaselike receptacle having a flat rear wall provided with a slot into which a tab formed on the bracket is adapted to penetrate so as to hang the receptacle with its rear wall in snug engagement with the crypt wall. The receptacle is applied to and removed from the bracket by a simple vertical movement, and the design of the cooperating parts of the bracket and receptacle is such that the receptacle is self-centering, so that the vertical lowering movement ice of the receptacle onto the bracket unfailingly serves to fix the receptacle in accurately vertical position, directly in the center of the wall area or in some other symmetrical predetermined position as may be desired.

Incidental advantages of the invention broadly considered, and particularly of the preferred embodiment selected herein to illustrate the principles of the invention, include simplicity of design, low cost of manufacture, durability in use, general attractiveness in appearance, and other features that will be apparent as the description proceeds.

In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate the preferred embodiment:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a portion of the front wall of a multi-crypt mausoleum, as seen from the visitors area, showing brackets provided by the present invention installed on three of the crypts, and showing one of the vase or receptacle elements of the inventive combination mounted on one of the brackets;

FIG. 2 is a relatively enlarged front elevational view of a portion of a crypt front wall with: a vase or receptacle element mounted thereon;

FIG. 3 is a transverse cross sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of FIG. 2, showing the receptacle and bracket in top plan;

FIG. 4 is a vertical cross sectional view taken on the line 4-4 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a rear elevational view of the vase or receptacle element of FIG. 2, showing the element in mounted position on the bracket; and

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the bracket and the cooperating upper portion of the vase or receptacle ele ment, shown detached from the crypt wall and from each other.

In these figures, the reference numeral 10 designates in its entirety the front wall of the crypt compartment of a multi-crypt mausoleum, as seen from the visitors area of the room. The wall is made up of the plurality of crypt Walls 12 which permanently close the individual crypts, one behind each wall 12. The crypt walls are generally made of ornamental marble or other fine natural or artificial stone, and each bears suitable inscription data such as, in the present instance, the name 14 of the interred person and the dates or years of birth 16 and death 18.

As shown in FIG. 1, the crypts are arranged as compartments or chambers in horizontal tiers disposed one above another in vertical alignment, commonly extending from near the floor of the mausoleum substantially to the ceiling of the room.

The foregoing arrangement is conventional, and it is to such an installation that the present invention of vase and bracket combination is applied, as will now be explained.

Each crypt front wall 12 has permanently secured to it, in an appropriately centered or otherwise well bal anced position, a bracket element 20, best shown in FIG. 6. This component of the invention is best made as a square plate of plastic or metal having a relatively thick lower portion or body 22 and a thinner upper portion or tab 24, each presenting flat parallel surfaces and forming at their juncture a well defined transverse shoulder 26. While dimensions and proportions form no essential part of the invention, it may be stated that We have found it convenient to make the bracket element small, inasmuch as it is to play an inconspicuous role in the performance of its function. We have found in actual practice that a very satisfactory bracket is one that is one and one-half inch square in plan, with a portion 22 one-quater inch thick and one one inch high and a portion 24 one-eighth inch thick and one-half inch high.

A bracket 20 is permanently applied to each crypt front wall 12 by adhesively securing the one and onehalf by one inch area of the thicker lower portion 22 to the marble wall surface, as by means of any of a number of presently well known cements, such as a cold setting epoxy resin or the like, indicated at 28 in FIG. 4. As there shown, the mounting is such that the thinner portion 24 of the element is uppermost and is spaced out from the plane surface of the crypt wall 12 a distance equal to the difference between the thicknesses of the two portions 22 and 24, or one-eighth inch in the illustrated embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 1, each bracket element 20 is mounted in exactly the same position on each of the crypt walls 12. This position is best made centrally of at least one dimension of the wall area, e.g., the width in the figure, so that all the brackets of the wall are similarly symmetrically related to the individual areas of the walls 12. As also shown in FIG. 1, it is possible, and is preferred, to position each bracket symmetrically with relation to some indicia or other decoration on the wall surface, such as by locating it between the birth and death dates 16 and 18. In this way, as is well shown by FIG. 1, the small bracket is rendered quite inconspicuous and indeed can be made to blend in so well with the other features of the crypt wall as to present the appearance of a purely decorative embellishment.

The vase or receptacle element of the combination, hereinafter called simply the vase, is shown at 30 and is best made of a molded thermoplastic such as a polyvinyl resin, which may be the same material as used for the bracket. The vase comprises an open topped, closed bottomed body having a front wall 32 which may be curved laterally as shown, with the curvature extending entirely around to the back of the vase, or the body could be designed with separately defined front and side walls presenting a rectangular or other polygonal figure in plan instead of the substantially semi-curcular one shown in FIG. 3. In any case, however, the vase provides a flowerreceiving pocket and the back of the vase is of special, particular design. The back comprises a rear wall which has an upper portion 34 which is flat and uniplanar and best extends fully across the width of the vase at the top of the vase and terminates centrally about an inch below the top edge, with the sides continuing downwardly in the form of side wings 36. These wings and the upper portion 34 of the vase rear wall are all uniplanar and constitute what may be called the outer rear wall of the vase. The remainder of the rear wall of the vase is formed by an inner rear Wall portion 38, which is offset inwardly from the plane of the outer rear wall portion a distance of one-quarter inch in the preferred embodiment of the invention. The juncture of the bottom edge of the upper portion 34 of the outer rear Wall and the upper edge of the inner rear wall 38 forms a well defined sharp laterally extending shoulder 40. The upper portion 34 of the outer rear wall is made one-eighth inch thick, and the plane of the inner rear wall 38 is inset onequarter inch from the plane of the outer rear wall. The result is a transverse slot 42 slightly more than one and one-half inch long and one-eighth inch wide behind the bottom edge of the one-eighth thick thick upper portion 34 of the outer rear wall of the vase.

The downwardly extending side wings 36 are best made downwardly tapered as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, and are one-quarter inch thick, while the intervening inner rear Wall portion 38 is one-eighth inch thick, as shown in FIG. 4.

It will be recognized from the foregoing description and the showings in the figures that the vase element can be applied in operative position to the outstanding, upstanding tab 24 of any of the installed bracket elements by simply placing the vase against the bracket, with the inner rear wall portion 38 snugly against the outer surface of the bracket and then sliding the vase down until the tab 24 penetrates the slot 42 and the shoulder 40 of the vase seats on the shoulder 26 of the bracket. It will be appreciated that in this sliding movement the converging surfaces of the tapered side wings 36 automatically cam the vase down into centered final position on the bracket. It will be noted also that in the installed position, the dimensions and planes of the two rear wall portions of the vase and the planes and thicknesses of the two portions of the bracket constrain the fiat uniplanar surface of the portions 34 and 36 of the rear wall of the vase into snug flat contact with the surface of the crypt wall 12. All of this contributes to an inevitable and invariably neat and identical placement and position of all the vases that may be installed at any given time on the mausoleum wall 10, thus accomplishing one of the important objects of the invention.

As will be understood, removal of any vase, for replenishment of water contained in it, for replacement of its floral content, or for retirement into storage, requires only lifting the vase to free it from its hook-like engagement with the bracket tab, leaving the cry-pt front wall 12 unmarred and undisfigured by any suggestiveness that something is missing or has been removed, inasmuch as the very small and symmetrically positioned bracket, if noticed at all, is seen to blend in with the surface decoration of the crypt wall.

In furtherance of this latter feature of the full preferred embodiment of the invention, it is desirable to provide the brackets in color closely matching that of the crypt walls. The vases may be similarly colored or maybe provided in colors contrasting that of the wall. Color selection is made easy if, as is preferred, the vases and brackets are both made of the same molded thermoplastic resin or equivalent material.

The invention has been explained and illustrated in terms of a presently preferred embodiment. Changes, additions and substitutions may be made in the details of this embodiment within the broad principles of novelty of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Having thus described our invention, we claim:

1. A crypt flower vase and mounting therefor comprising cooperating vase and bracket elements,

said vase forming an open topped receptacle for flowers or the like and having two rear wall portions disposed in spaced apart flat parallel planes, said rear wall portions comprising an outer wall having an uniplanar flat rear surface formed with an upper portion extending entirely across the upper portion of the vase from the upper edge thereof to a lower edge extending across the central zone only of said outer wall a short distance below the upper edge of the vase and forming a downwardly facing straight shoulder, and said outer wall being formed also with side wing portions coplanar with said upper portion and extending downwardly from the sides of said upper portion,

and said rear wall portions comprising also an inner wall having a uniplanar flat rear surface extending the full spacing between said side wing portions of the outer wall and terminating upwardly in the plane of said shoulder,

the spacing between the rear surface of the inner wall and the inner surface of said upper portion of the outer wall forming a laterally extending upwardly open slot behind said shoulder,

and said bracket comprising a generally rectangular plate comprising a lower portion having a thickness equal to the spacing between the planes of the rear surfaces of the two rear wall portions of the vase and a relatively thin tab upstanding from the lower portion,

having a thickness equal to the width of said slot in the vase walls,

said tab and lower portion of the bracket providing a transverse straight shoulder at their junction,

said bracket being permanently secured to the wall of a 3. The combination claimed in claim 1, including a crypt or the like in vase-supporting position, with the mausoleum wall formed by a plurality of crypt walls, bracket shoulder extending horizontally, the lower a plurality of bracket elements, each as defined in claim 1,

portion of the bracket being positioned between the permanently adhered to said crypt walls in substantially side wing portions of the vase outer, rear wall, the similar position, one on each crypt wall, and a plurality tab of the bracket extending up through said slot in of vase elements, each as defined in claim 1, and each the vase rear walls, and the bracket shoulder facing hanging on one of said bracket elements.

upwardly and being engaged by and supporting the downwardly facing shoulder formed on the lower References Cited edge of the vase outer rear wall. 10 UNITED STATES PATENTS 2. A crypt flower vase and mounting therefor as 602,195 4/1898 Pfau 248-224 i claim 676,619 6/1901 Faethe 248223 in which said side wing portlons of the outer rear wall 1 577 351 3/1926 Al extend downwardly to the bottom edge of the vase 1701690 2/1926 and are downwardly tapered so that the rear surtace 15 1823732 9/1931 g' of the inner rear wall forms with the wmg portions 3294355 12/1966 Topf a recess open to the bottom of the vase and tapering upwardly to said slot and outer rearjwall shoulder ROBERT BAGWILL, primary Examiner for receiving the tab and guiding the vase in downwardly sliding movement on the tab in the operation 20 US. Cl. X,R, of mounting the vase on the wall of a crpyt or the 248-224 l e, 

